songoku

I brought my vehicle in for noise coming from the top (originally I had mine sunroof housing replaced under TSB warranty back in November 2017, but the noise came back).

Service advisor called me and said that they had to remove all bolts/nuts for the housing and re-torque them. But when I picked up the vehicle and reading thru the service ticket, I was surprise to see they put 26 miles on the vehicle for road test.


Is this normal to put this much of miles on road test to verify?

Has anyone experience similar issue before?

I had a dash cam on my car and found out that there is no video saved between the time I dropped off & when I picked up. They intentionally un-plugged the dash cam power so it won't record.

Rich707

Good afternoon,
Know this can be frustrating. Having worked in Dealer Service Department, they will **sometimes**
have one of their lead Techs drive the home from work, etc, especially if there is an intermittent/ noise issue, etc.
You may want to confirm with the SR or the Service Manager.

mjeds

was this Santa Monica Lexus? they pulled that crap with my RCF (unplugging the camera) and took it for a "test drive" which apparently entailed hard cornering and speeds in excess of 70mph in a 35mph zone. They may have unplugged the camera but were unaware that I had a data logger with GPS and sms notification wired into the car.

songoku

I carefully drive my car and watch over my MPG. I usually get about 22.0~23.0 MPG combination of 40city / 60 freeway driving.

When I picked up the vehicle, I noticed the MPG dropped down to 19.2. sign of abuse?

bclexus

I'm guessing the technician working on your car took it out on a test run to see if he could determine exactly where the noise was coming from, and then again he took it on another test run after repairs were made to see if the noise had been eliminated. I don't blame the driver from disconnecting the dash camera. Maybe a few techs even went to lunch in it also to check it out. You can be pretty sure the car experienced some WOT runs, but that is not abuse.

MustangSal

They beat it like a red headed step child. Purposely unplugged the dashcam to avoid leaving evidence. You should go absolutely bananas. It doesn't take 26 miles to hear the ominous clunk of the sunroof. Maybe...2,600'. They should give you a couple free oil changes or something...

bclexus

Why would you go bananas? [If it was your car] You authorized the car manufacturer's dealership's service center to analyze and make repairs. It's up to them to determine the process of how and what needs to be done to accomplish the service needed. 26 miles is only 10-12 minutes of 60 mph driving plus some street driving getting back to the shop (done twice). They gladly reported the mileage driven. The service center (and the employee is some states) has a right not to be recorded when servicing a customer's vehicle.

mjeds

sadly the tech and service department have a reasonable expectation of privacy on their property and in their service bays, so technically they can disconnect the camera and most do, however it is more professional if they ask you to do it.

while you DO have a legal right to record IN PUBLIC or in PUBLIC PLACES ON PRIVATE PROPERTY, you do not have a right to record on their private property. Nor in most states do you have a right to record a conversation or someone's face without their knowledge, even if the camera is in plain view.

np20412

They probably let the car idle quite a bit while in the shop. That will kill your trip mpg faster than anything. I notice the same thing on my car and they didn't test drive it all (mileage in = mileage out) so my only reasoning is that they had let it idle for a while when working on it.

MustangSal

I didn't say "I" would go bananas. I wouldn't. I say "he" should.

I don't care if they put 40 miles on my car as long as they stand by fixing it.

bclexus

I presumed that if you think 'he' should go absolutely bananas, that suggests that if the same thing happened to you, that you would go absolutely bananas. I'll rephrase my question. Why do you think that he should go absolutely bananas?

I'm just curious to know what your thoughts were/are...

oldcajun

The OP defined specific conditions where he heard the noise. It would seem to me that a drive to duplicate the conditions prior to the repair then a repeat after to verify the the fix worked would be necessary. Finding these conditions may easily require some driving. I don't think the 26 miles was excessive. Disconnecting the dash cam is normal especially in this time where lawsuits are filed over virtually nothing.

MustangSal

It's seems all the rage now - to get nuts on service. Ok...OP, don't go nut/bananas (yet). They should go a little more in depth as to why the cam was disabled and should be able to detail how they got 26 miles on the car. Was it an overnight? Was it just rolling around. Quite honestly, my dealership calls me for nearly everything when my GS is in their possession. Blurry lines of assumption never did any dealer any good for its reputation. There should be a level of transparency that is obvious and being pushed from the dealer to the customer. Not entirely saying the OPs wasn't but it seems as if he has questions and there shouldn't be any.

raytseng

say they had to go test drive it once to replicate sound and pinpoint it. 6 miles out and back which might be like 1 or 2 exits on the freeway.

Then after doing the work, 1 more loop to verify its gone.
I wouldnt go bananas if the problem is fixed.

ECL

A few (many?) years ago, I had a new Mercedes 500SL. The warning light for impending roll bar deployment kept going off, so I took it to the dealer for evaluation. They had the car for several days. One day, my wife and son were out and about and saw an identical 500SL pull into a local restaurant, where a couple got out and went to lunch. My son said, "Look, Mom, dad's car!" She said, "No, it's just a similar car." My son asked, "Then why does it have dad's license plate?" When I confronted the dealer, they told me they were out for a road test. I traded the Mercedes for a new Lexus SC400, which I drove for the next 18 years.